Publication | Open Access
Zooming into an Instagram City: Reading the local through social media
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2013
Year
EngineeringUrban InformaticsSocial Medium MonitoringEmerging MediaOnline CommunitiesVisual Social MediaLocation-aware Social MediumCommunicationLocalizationJournalismMedia SystemsComputational Social ScienceSocial MediaVisual SignaturesContent AnalysisInstagram CitySocial Medium MiningSocial NetworksMedia ContentDigital MediaSocial Media PlatformsSocial Media MiningGeosocial NetworkVisual Media StudiesSocial Medium VisualizationSocial ComputingPopular MobileMass CommunicationArtsSocial Medium Data
User experiences of creating, sharing, and interacting with media are shaped by the interfaces of specific social media platforms. This study investigates how computational analysis and visualizations of Instagram photos can reveal social and cultural patterns across spatial and temporal scales. The authors analyze Instagram’s interface affordances and compare visual signatures of 13 global cities using 2.3 million photos. Spatio‑temporal visualizations of 200,000 Tel Aviv photos over three months demonstrate how such data can illuminate local social, cultural, and political dynamics.
How are users’ experiences of production, sharing, and interaction with the media they create mediated by the interfaces of particular social media platforms? How can we use computational analysis and visualizations of the content of visual social media (e.g., user photos, as opposed to upload dates, locations, tags and other metadata) to study social and cultural patterns? How can we visualize this media on multiple spatial and temporal scales? In this paper, we examine these questions through the analysis of the popular mobile photo–sharing application Instagram. First, we analyze the affordances provided by the Instagram interface and the ways this interface and the application’s tools structure users’ understanding and use of the “Instagram medium.” Next, we compare the visual signatures of 13 different global cities using 2.3 million Instagram photos from these cities. Finally, we use spatio–temporal visualizations of over 200,000 Instagram photos uploaded in Tel Aviv, Israel over three months to show how they can offer social, cultural and political insights about people’s activities in particular locations and time periods.